Man who stabbed an AH employee to death wanted to take revenge on the supermarket

ANPOn June 28, there was a silent procession for the supermarket employee in The Hague

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:19

The man who stabbed to death an employee of an Albert Heijn branch in The Hague in June acted in revenge for previous incidents at the supermarket chain. Suspect Jamel L. (56) stated this in court today during a first hearing in the case.

He did not explain what exactly he wanted to take revenge for. His lawyer also did not want to comment on that. It is known that L. was only released recently after being convicted for an incident at another Albert Heijn branch. There he had threatened staff when he was accused of theft.

L. confesses that he stabbed a 36-year-old employee in the heart with a knife at Albert Heijn in The Hague. “I went to buy a can of orange juice and suddenly it occurred to me that I had to arrange something,” L. said today.

He asked an employee for a knife, took it out of the packaging and “unknowingly” walked towards the victim in the bakery department. “That lady was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the suspect said. L. stated to the police that anyone from Albert Heijn could have been the target.

TBS measure not carried out

In the near future, the suspect will be examined at the Pieter Baan Center to determine whether he suffers from a mental disorder. He has a long history of nuisance, aggression and psychological problems. He has been convicted several times at home and abroad.

In 2018, the judge in Curaçao imposed a TBS measure on him, but it could not be carried out because there is no TBS clinic on the island. The Netherlands did not want to simply adopt the measure. The result was that L. ended up on the street without TBS treatment.

At his last conviction in the Netherlands, shortly before the stabbing, the TBS imposition was also not known at all. According to the court, this was not in the file. How this is possible is still being investigated. The Security and Justice Inspectorate, among others, is investigating the past of Jamel L.

Ticking time bomb

The relatives of the Albert Heijn employee are angry and frustrated that the suspect was able to walk around untreated. “According to them, the incident could have been prevented if action had been taken earlier,” says their lawyer Deria Bak.

The family wants clarification about what preceded the stabbing, says Bak. “The question is how the government could allow such a ticking time bomb to pass through The Hague. There are many things from which you can deduce that he posed a danger to society and that sooner or later things would go wrong.”

In this video an overview of what happened on June 20 in the supermarket at the Hague Turfmarkt, and everything that preceded it:

Why was Jamel L., suspected of murder in a supermarket, walking around free?

Source